The things a month can bring...

1. New job
2. Bruce - daycare, teeth, mobility, sheer size...
3. Family
4. FALL!

(Yes... I do need to organize my thoughts via numerical lists. So there.)

1. I GOT A NEW JOB!
- My last day at the college was August 14th - giving me my first free weekend in MONTHS - and I have never been happier with my career situation. I am the Office Assistant for an insurance and risk management pool specializing in water and sewer districts in Washington state. It's a public entity company, meaning amazing Government benefits. I run the office, plan the meetings, book the retreats, and go on business trips. I know I sound completely immature and gushing, but I'm truly happy here and feel like I might have found 'my place'. The only two down-sides? One, it's in downtown Bellevue, making my commute quite a bit longer than it was to the college. Two?

2. Bruce
- ... in daycare. After spending the first 7 months of his life with his Mommy, my sweet boy had to be plopped into daycare for roughly 9 hours/day. It's not all gloom-and-doom, however; Anita, who runs the daycare along with her husband, Dan, has been at this for 27 years... and lives across the street from us. Score! They really love Bruce, and he's thriving there.

- Teeth: My not-so-little man (8.5 months already?!) has his two bottom teeth, and will soon be the proud owner of his upper-chompers as well. His upper right tooth has broken through and is coming in nicely, and the upper left seems to be soon to follow. He loves being able to eat what we're eating... something that he couldn't do beforehand.

- Mobility: Squishy can crawl! Granted, it's still early (and by "early" I mean "hilarious part army-crawl, part launch-forward, part backwards movement"), but he can definitely get himself around now. He's also pulling himself up (something that he's been doing at various ability levels since he was 3 months old) and walking around, holding on to our fingers. I can't believe that MY offspring is so ready to get-up-and-go! Where's my lazy baby?

- Sheer size: Yeah. Um, Bruce is a little big. Not "fat"... not even "chubby"... just BIG. At 8 months, his stats are as follows:
Weight = 24.5 lbs (96th percentile)
Length = 30 in. (96th percentile)
Head = 19.25 in. (97th percentile)

3. Family
- Steve's dad fell and broke his neck in the garage two weeks ago, and is finally starting to realize that fact. To say that he has been 'stubborn' would be wildly inaccurate, but at least he's getting better. The plus-side (because there always is one)? Christopher, Steve's brother, has started talking to Dad again after almost 6 months of not. Progress.

4. FALL IS COMING...!
- Eee!
- On Tuesday, Sept. 22nd at 5:18 p.m., I will be the happiest woman alive... or, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Fall is, without a doubt, Krystal's Happy Time. Last year, I wrote a (MySpace) blog regarding all the wonderful things I have to look forward to, but this year I plan to do something different entirely:

Experience it.

This will be Bruce's first fall season, and that means I'll get to be as hyper and schmeepy as I want without Stephen making fun of me. Much.

That's about it for us. I have my first business trip next week (Lake Chelan... woot!), and then a couple of big projects to work on at the office.

Here's a list of what I'm brainstorming about now:
making a unique headboard for our bed,
fall wreaths,
Christmas wreaths,
fall cookie recipes,
finally tackling Alton Brown's Apple Pie recipe,
making a baby sling,
making Christmas blankets for family presents this year,

financial planning,

getting my AIS cert.,

the cost of a relatively new-ish Jetta/Passat (both TDIs),

headshots for voiceovers (thanks, Robert!),

voiceover representation and/or classes,
quitting Avon,
squeezing in skating time,

recipes using squash and any other gourds,
Halestorm (nothing in particular... I just love their music),

a trip to Florida with Bruce to meet his great grandpa and grandma,
start looking at houses by mid-2010...

Just... adorable!

Last weekend saw the arrival of Bruce's 23rd week. Not a significant number, admittedly, but still an amazing thing!

To start the weekend off, we took Bruce to his first Mariner's game on Friday. The M's were playing the Twins (and ultimately lost after going into extra innings... boo...), the weather was great, and I wanted to cash-in my Mother's Day gift of a baseball game! At first Bruce was a little spooked by the train - and the resulting whistle - as well as the cheering, but being able to hold my hand while in our new baby backpack seemed to do the trick. By the time we got to our seats (Section 347 is AWESOME, by the way), he was golden! He interacted with everyone nearby, snuggled with Daddy, and gave me tons of kisses.

Steve, Bruce, and I headed up north to Bellingham to visit with Jason, Merrilee, and their 10-month old son, Baxter on Sunday... and man, is that kid adorable! It was very cool to see the differences and similarities between our sons, and to just chat with "new" parents our own age.

Granted, I also had a mission while visiting our friends. A couple of weeks ago, I went to an open call for a local talent agency, hoping to get started in the voiceover (and maybe acting) field in the greater-Seattle area. I had my acting resume, but... headshots. Yep. Kind of need those, too. SO, since Merrilee is a whiz with her spiffy new camera, she agreed to take some headshots for me! She and I headed to a local park and got the job done - which is no small feat, considering as how I had NO idea what I was doing! She's a pro, I'm telling you. Merrilee also took some great shots of Bruce, which she edited and sent our way as well.

So, just because I'm so impressed (and freaking proud of how handsome my little man is!), here you go:

And yes, being the sentimental mommy that I am... I cried when I saw this picture! My sweet baby!

This picture, aside from being insanely adorable, is great; this is the face he makes before deciding to do something 'new' - a new way to roll, a new way to smile, a new "something".

Some of my headshot options:

Now, these are just THREE options! She sent me way more to choose from - these are just the ones I pulled off her Flickr account (I hope that was okay, Merrilee!).

All-in-all, I'd say it was a great weekend!